Ultra low profile hook pick, check this out.

[WDPaladin]

Ok after playing with a few locks I noticed that my hook/feeler seemed SLIGHTLY larger than I would like it to be in certain situations so... Anyone here ever do pottery? There are tools to put designs into a spinning clay pot, and with a small amount of work, you get this..



And for size comparison..



Sorry about the pic quality. Give it a try if anyone is interested, you can get them from most any art store. Good luck, hope this helps. Comments and Q's always appreciated!

[Shrub]

Is it just a wire in a handle?
How much do they cost?

[WDPaladin]

Imagine a long safety pin with more than enough strength in a thick plastic tube/handle. Cost (you should like this) is around 50 cents. I rounded down the sharp head into a more ball-like shape and bent the head up slightly so as to give it the same shape as a feeler/hook pick.

[Shrub]

So is it a round wire then?

[WDPaladin]

Short answer-yep. I filed the bottom of the wire out slightly so it doesnt try to "roll" like a round wire seems to do, giving it the shape that I superimposed onto the picture below. As you can see, it's dimensions are very similar to a regular pick- the only difference is the actual size of the shaft leading up to the tip of the pick and the heads are very similar, just smaller for the blue handled one.

[Demonithese]

i could go down to the local pottery place and get one for a buck?

[WDPaladin]

If they have them, you can probably get two for a buck!

[scampdog]

if it is narrow enough,and hard enough,you could use it as a key extractor

sorry about the drawing,but you can use it to lift the pin, and hook the broken key,the one i use(underneath) is an old pick i ,ground down,and it has removed many keys, hope this is of use.

[Lock Jockey]

Great idea, I feel a trip to the art store coming on. Is it very strong though? It looks like the wire might be a bit flimsy.

[WDPaladin]

Its strong enough to pick open my pin tumbler Qwikset and my jewelry case style disc tumber locks that I have so far. It's slightly weaker than a regular pick because the height of a pick helps in vertical strength, but its d@mn well strong enough. Either way, try it! It costs only [as you can see from previous posts] about 50 cents. Flatten the tip, bend the tip, flatten the bottom. worst that could happen is you throw away 50 cents and 2 minutes of labor, but if you like it, then cheers. Let me know what happens, I'm watching the topic. GL..

[WDPaladin]

And thank you scampdog. This has obviously limited use, you i might do what you suggested and turn this into an extractor. It bends well and can be easily turned into what you suggest, and with its slightly lowered lifting strength compared to an actual pick [...the limiting factor..] this might be a better application! Thanks again.

[zeke79]

I actually have a similar set of picks that I made some time ago out of piano wire type material. The picks are delicate, but I only use them on very paracentric keyway locks. They have come in handy at times on some euro locks and overcoming heavy chamber springs and a stubborn spool pin when I didn't want to get too rough with my falle safe extra thin picks.

A set of tools that do not see much use, but when they come out they are the only tools that can get the lock picked.

[undeadspacehippie]

This looks like what I need for a schlage lock that I am working on.